Thursday, January 17, 2013

"ICAEW's brand new Find A Chartered Accountant site is embarrassing
The site was launched yesterday but it has clearly not been properly tested and contains incorrect data.When I checked out my own entry, I discovered it was missing. I tried to
contact Tolley - who are providing the service for ICAEW - but, despite
two emails, no one got back to me. My entry did mysteriously appear
later in the afternoon, but it is incomplete. I have chased again, but
still no response.However, it's not only the incompleteness of my entry (and who knows how
many others) that concerns me. Searching at my location (New Malden),
the site tells me that there are 17 firms at that location. Expanding
the search to within 1 mile of New Malden produces no firms at all
(where did the initial 17 go?) This is also true as we go further out,
until we get to 30 miles from New Malden where, suddenly, there are 20
firms - but, (wait for it) they are all in NORTHERN IRELAND! Are Tolley
using Apple's mapping app, I wonder?If you search at >100 miles from New Malden, you find a total of
21,381 firms. This, presumably, should be everyone in the database, but
it is actually greater than the number of firms listed in the root
search (ie with no filters at all).This would all be mildly amusing (as well as personally irritating that
my entry is still incorrect) if it weren't for the fact that this is a
public tool. What sort of impression does it create of our Institute and
of Chartered Accountants generally? Why was this site launched without
proper testing and verification of the data?"

25 Ken Frost, serial blogger and HMRC agitator
A
long-time thorn in the side of the ICAEW in his blogging capacity, Frost
has found that HMRC's travails have taken up a bigger chunk of his
social media efforts. Not that the institute is out of his line of
vision, but his probing questions and good contact base make
http://hmrcisshite.blogspot.co.uk an amusing and revealing read.